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MSG ratings as bad as Knicks’ 4-20 mark

Since he does not travel with the Knickerbockers, Phil Jackson watches his team on the Madison Square Gulag Network.

Now the Knicks prez is one of the dwindling number of viewers tuning in to see his triangle offense sputter. MSG’s Knicks ratings (through Wednesday night’s Spurs game) are commensurate with the team’s 4-20 start.

The ratings are down double digits in all key demographics. Total viewers are at an average of 189,000, down nearly 20% from the 234,000 recorded during the same time period last season. MSG’s Knicks household rating is 1.98, down 11% from the 2.23 registered at the same point last season.

When Jackson was introduced as Knicks prez i n March, James (Guitar Jimmy) Dolan said he was relieved to relinquish the responsibility of sticking his beak into basketball operations. Now he can devote full attention to the entertainment end of his empire, which includes the MSG Network.

While this early-season Knicks ratings slide won’t have an immediate impact on the hefty subscriber fees cable operators and satellite providers pay Dolan to carry MSG, an entertainment savant like Guitar Jimmy (and his guiding light, Irving Azoff) has to look at the numbers with raised eyebrows and ask the following questions: Is this the start of a downward trend? Is this the beginning of a steeper ratings decline continuing into and through the 2015-16 season?

Or are the Knicks, as a television product, just in a temporary suck mode? Will they get back on track this season to the point where absent eyeballs return?

The free world must be reminded that Dolan, who owns Cablevision, is also a cable operator. If he did not own the MSG Network how much would he be willing to pay for the right to distribute it considering the abysmal state of the Knicks?

In the past, through the many down and dysfunctional yea r s, Dola n’s orga nization has prevented a mass exodus of eyeballs in different ways. Remember February 2012, when Jeremy Lin got off the bench? The first four games (all wins) MSG’s Knicks ratings shot up 70%.

There is no Lin-like phenom currently on the Knicks. So the organization will continue doing what it does best, selling “hope” just like it did by using guys like Donnie Walsh, Stephon Marbury and Larry Brown. The message is clear: Don’t worry about the performance on the court — the next savior is just around the corner. Just keep watching on MSG. You’ll see.

This early ratings slide might mean hardcore Knicks fans, ones priced out of the Gulag who follow the team strictly on MSG, have seen this movie before and know how it ends. They might have concluded it ain’t worth watching the Knicks on MSG just to see Jackson, another symbol of hope, sitting at midcourt during home games. Now, if he got out of his seat and returned to the sidelines, the ratings would soar.

That’s a fantasy. Still, a not her t w isted k i nd of anticipation exists. Knicks viewers usually tune in if a circus/ soap opera surrounds the team. That’s why (for entertainment purposes only, of course) a near physical confrontation between Carmelo Anthony, the brightest (and highest paid) star in Dolan’s entertainment galaxy, and Tim Hardaway Jr., a story reported by ESPN’s Chris Broussard, is not such a bad thing. It has resurrected the soap opera angle. The only thing lacking from the disscourse, and giving the scene real sizzle, was Hardaway Jr. making a “Honey Nut Cheerios” reference. You think a few more eyeballs would have returned to MSG to see these cats play together if bad blood continued boiling over?

With his team in the toilet, what Dolan really needs to juice the ratings is a more glitzy feud — like Melo vs Amar’e.

Or how about Anthony dropping a dime on Jackson, saying (if he hasn’t already privately) that he’s sick of running the triangle? That might even get the stoic Derek Fisher to show some emotion. And give viewers a reason to watch.

MSG’s voices offered evidence of how a controversy can shake them out of their somnambulant state. On the air Wednesday night, studio analyst Wally Szczerbiak called Broussard’s story “despicable” before dumping on it. Szczerbiak said “we shouldn’t know” what goes on in the Knicks locker room.

“I have no idea, but I can tell you, for one thing, we don’t know the real story,” Szczerbiak said on the pregame show. “And I believe that the story that came out (on ESPN) is completely false.”

Moments later, Walt (Clyde) Frazier was not as dismissive. He reminded viewers he has already called for the Knicks to have a players-only soiree. “If Melo is shooting too much you tell him right to his face,” Frazier said. “(Tell him) he’s not rebounding. Guys are not doing what they are supposed to do. That’s what a team meeting is for.”

Sounds like a Frazier-Szczerbiak feud in the making.

For ratings’ sake, of course.